Biscuits & Sausage Gravy

There is a chill in the air and fall is definitely upon us.  Yesterday was a dreary and rainy evening.  During the evening hours, I was cozy watching the World Series on TV and text messaging with a friend about the events of the game and hoping our beloved Royals would rally.  Sadly, they did not, but the Series isn't over yet!  During our text conversation,  she asked me if I had added anything to the blog lately.  Well, I had to confess, that things have been busy and I have just not been feeling very creative in the kitchen and no, I haven't had an entry in several months.  

The guilt set in.  

I have been craving biscuits and sausage gravy for the last few days, so I decided it was time to take care of that craving, and I would leverage the basic recipes for photos and a new blog entry.  I've historically not been a baking powder biscuit fan, because I've never seemed to master them.  They often were more like hockey pucks rather than the light, fluffy creations I expected them to be.  For these reasons, I generally take the easy way out and get a tube of biscuits from the grocery.  

Well, I won't be doing that any more!  This is my new go to recipe for light fluffy and flaky buttermilk biscuits that I can easily mix up with ingredients I have on hand.  These biscuits are not my recipe, credit belongs to Cooking Light.  I'm excited to find an easy recipe that fits my biscuit expectations and am excited to share the recipe with you.  

So without further ado, here's the biscuit recipe that can be quickly pulled together for a tasty breakfast.  They would be fantastic simply slathered with butter or with some jelly or a drizzle of honey.     

But for the royal treatment, whip up a skillet full of gravy to make you feel warm and cozy!

Cheesy Sausage Balls

While surfing Pinterest the other evening, I found this sausage ball recipe and decided it might be something nice to try for breakfast.

I get up really early to ride the bus to work, so in addition to packing my lunch, I also pack breakfast to take along.  A few minutes in the microwave once I'm at work and I have a nice hot breakfast.  Studies have proven that we function better if we provide our bodies fuel for the day. I can vouch for that! Along with my coffee, I have to have some type of protein to start my day.  It helps keep my hunger under control and prevents those embarrassing tummy growls during meetings!  

What I liked about this recipe is that it truly is low carb.  It does not contain baking mix that many sausage ball recipes call for.

These would also be great appetizers or game day nibblers.

Barbecued Pork Chops

Once again, I'm rummaging in my old recipe file.  Pork chops were on sale this week so I purchased a big package.  I believe it had a dozen or so boneless chops. You will notice that this recipe calls for 8 chops, but I used it with the 10 or 12 chops in the package.  Growing up, we always had chops with bones, but boneless fit into the pan a little easier and you don't have bones to throw away later!

This is comfort food for me.  This is my mom's recipe.  I don't recall where she got it but it is unique.  It is a thin sauce and not the sweet sticky bottled sauce you buy at the store.  It has a couple of unique ingredients that are more commonly found in sauerbrauten recipes.  Anyway, seeing chops on sale triggered a memory and these are now cooking in the oven and the whole house smells amazing!

Sausage Broccoli Bake

I was given this recipe by a lady I worked with many years ago at Citizens Bank in Evansville, IN.  When she first told me about it, I was very skeptical, I didn't think it sounded yummy at all.  I made it and from then on I was hooked! 

It is very easy, and I often have the ingredients on hand.

Give it a try and I hope you are as pleasantly surprised as I was!

Sausage Broccoli Bake

Ingredients:

1 pound bulk pork sausage
2 beaten eggs
2 cups soft bread crumbs
1 8 oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained
11 oz. package frozen broccoli, cooked and drained
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup salad dressing
2 teaspoons mustard
Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Brown and drain sausage.  You will notice oil in my photo and that is because I used sausage I made an it is leaner than what you buy in the store, so I needed a little olive oil.

Using fresh bread, using your food processor, make fresh bread crumbs.  I had some left over hamburger buns that I used.

Mix the sausage, eggs, bread crumbs, water chestnuts and cooked, drained broccoli together and turn the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake uncovered 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

While the casserole is baking, mix together the sour cream, salad dressing and mustard.
I would recommend using Miracle Whip, I didn't have any MW on hand so I used mayo and it wasn't as good.

Combine and spread over the top of the sausage mixture.  Return to the oven and bake an additional 10 minutes until the topping is hot.

and that's What's Cooking at Cathy's ~ Enjoy!